DOCSLIB.ORG

Chinese Anarchists in Japan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chinese Anarchists in Japan View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Heidelberger Dokumentenserver 1 [running title: Esperanto and Chinese anarchism 1907-1920] Esperanto and Chinese anarchism 1907-1920: The translation from diaspora to homeland Gotelind Müller University of Heidelberg Gregor Benton Cardiff University The history of Esperanto in China was for long periods closely linked with anarchism. This article surveys the connection in the years up to 1920, and sets out to show which groups used which arguments to agitate for Esperanto, in order to throw light on the complexity of the relationship between language and politics in China, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. keywords: Esperanto, anarchism, China, language politics, language reform The history of Esperanto in early twentieth century China has been strongly – though not exclusively – linked with anarchism.1 This article looks at the origins and early phases of China’s Esperanto movement in Tokyo and Paris and at its groups of supporters and critics and their arguments for or against Esperanto, to support the claim of a strong connection between Esperanto and anarchism in China (and incidentally in all of East Asia). This relationship was less developed in, though not altogether absent from, the West, where anarchists generally showed less interest in language issues than their East Asian counterparts. This contrast points up important differences in cultural sensibilities. It must also be seen in the context of the historical setting in which anarchism was introduced to China: who developed an interest in it and why. We start by briefly summarising some basic facts about Esperanto as a language and a political movement. Esperanto is a planned universalist language developed in the late nineteenth century by L. L. Zamenhof, a Jewish oculist, for use as a global second language. Zamenhof grew up in Poland under Russian occupation and experienced at first hand the linguistic, ethnic, national, and religious tensions among Jews, catholic Poles, orthodox Russians, and protestant Germans. He identified problems of communication as a main cause of conflict and constructed Esperanto as the remedy. He presented his work to the public in 1887. As a doctor, he wrote it under the pseudonym Doktoro Esperanto – the Hoping One. Subsequently, this name was transferred to the language.2 2 Zamenhof set out the structure of Esperanto in his Fundamento de Esperanto, published in 1905. It strove towards maximum simplicity. The grammar consisted of just sixteen rules, the spelling was “phonetic,” nouns were genderless, and verbs were regular and uninflected. The vocabulary was based primarily on Latin, English, German, French, and Russian.3 Zamenhof tested and developed the new language by translating works ranging from the Old Testament to plays by Shakespeare, Molière, and Goethe. In the late nineteenth century, the Esperanto movement started to take off. Today, the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, founded in 1908, has members in over 110 countries and represents more than 100,000 Esperanto speakers, who send delegates each year to the World Esperanto Congress. More than one hundred periodicals appear in the language and more than 30,000 books have been published in it. As it grew in influence and extent, the Esperanto movement was increasingly racked by internal conflict. Zamenhof himself tried to inject the idea of Esperanto with a quasi-religious meaning. Others saw the language as a neutral tool of communication. Officially, Esperantists set aside their differences and agreed on a vague general platform of understanding between peoples and world peace, but tensions in the movement continued 4 Socialists and anarchists saw Esperanto as a perfect vehicle for internationalism and world revolution. It also won strong support among internationally minded Chinese. Esperanto was imported into China by foreigners and initially had little impact. However, leading Chinese radicals outside China – primarily anarchists in France and Japan – passionately embraced the Esperanto cause and did their best to establish it in China and the diaspora. In later years, Esperanto also won a following among Chinese communists. After the October Revolution, in the 1920s, networks of Esperantists in the Soviet Union set up a workers’ press.5 In 1921, at its inaugural meeting, a communist- supported but supra-party International Association of Non-Nationals (SAT: Sennacieca Asocio Tutmonda) emphasised the use of Esperanto in class struggle and condemned the mainstream Universala Esperanto-Asocio as politically neutral. In 1931, the International of Proletarian Esperantists (IPE) was founded with the goal of sidelining SAT and supporting only the Comintern line. The IPE established its main support outside the Soviet Union in Germany, but it also had a flourishing branch in China.6 The Soviet experiment in Esperanto ended in tragedy in 1937, when its supporters were purged during Stalinist Russification, but it later revived.7 The Tokyo group of Chinese anarchists Chinese anarchists in Tokyo and Paris began publishing journals, independently of one another, in the spring of 1907. The Tokyo group originated in the Society for the Study of Socialism (Shehuizhuyi jiangxihui), which Liu Shipei led. Liu’s Tokyo journal was called Tianyi (Natural justice). It was followed later by Hengbao (Equality), which had a somewhat different outlook. Together with his wife He Zhen, Liu called for social revolution incorporating feminism. Unlike the Paris group, which assumed that the universals of Western thinking were also valid for China, Liu and He were strongly attached to Chinese culture and believed that anarchist principles grew out of a Chinese cultural “essence” that would facilitate China’s transition to an anarchist future (Krebs 1998:29-31). The Tokyo Chinese anarchists believed it was necessary to express oneself as simply as possible to reach the widest number of people and supported the call for an 3 international means of communication. Delegates at both the two big world congresses of radicalism in 1907, that of the Second International in Stuttgart and of the anarchists in Amsterdam, raised the question of Esperanto, but while the former did not consider the problem urgent, the latter responded with greater enthusiasm (Nomad 1966:86). In Japan, the Japanese anarchist Ōsugi Sakae had learned Esperanto and was keen to pass on his knowledge, including to the Chinese anarchist Jing Meijiu, an occasional contributor to Tianyi. Esperanto made its first appearance in Tianyi – without comment or translation – in the title of a picture of the French anarchist Elisée Reclus.8 Tianyi nos. 16-19 published a picture of Zamenhof, the Esperanto anthem by Zamenhof, and an article by Liu Shipei on Esperanto.9 In the article, Liu argued that only an artificial language could be truly international and that a worldwide union would come about only if all goods were owned in common and there was a world language.10 Liu, whose knowledge of foreign languages probably did not extend beyond a smattering of Japanese, found Esperanto fascinating. Would it not solve the problem of communication in China, with its host of mutually incomprehensible dialects? According to Liu, Esperanto had much in common with Chinese and would therefore be easy to learn. (He had used the same argument for anarchism, to “prove” that it would not lead to cultural alienation; on the contrary, China would provide its worldwide vanguard.) Liu reckoned Esperanto could be learned in three months and if everyone agreed to adopt it, the revolutionary literature of the whole world would become available to people everywhere. For Liu, Esperanto would be the sole foreign language. He accepted that it would be hard to abolish Chinese and he may never have intended to do so, given his attachment to Chinese tradition.11 In 1908, in an article for the magazine Guocui xuebao (National essence), he stressed that Chinese should be preserved as a unique cultural monument, for, being “archaic,” it could provide information about the evolution of human society. Instead of following the Japanese model of romanisation, the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuowen jiezi should be translated into Esperanto with guides to pronunciation, to make Chinese accessible to the entire world.12 In 1908, the Japanese authorities closed down Tianyi after it published a translation of the Communist Manifesto. It was succeeded by Hengbao, which was dedicated to “anarcho-communism, anti-militarism, the general strike, reports about the people’s suffering, and links with the international revolutionary labour unions.” Hengbao frequently contained material in English and Esperanto and recruited participants for Ōsugi Sakae’s Esperanto courses. Its Esperanto section explained that Chinese anarchists in Japan suffered as a result of the language problem, for like most foreign revolutionaries in Japan they knew only their own language, and translating cost time and effort. Ōsugi, the driving force behind this Chinese campaign, promised that Esperanto could be learned in six months to a year.13 The Paris group of Chinese anarchists The Paris group of Chinese anarchists was led by Wu Zhihui, Li Shizeng, Zhang Jingjiang, and Chu Minyi, who had been recruited by French anarchists. In 1907, they launched the journal Xin shiji (New century). They believed in a world citizenship that would transcend conventional state and cultural frontiers and in the need for a world language. Esperanto was in vogue in Europe at the time, especially in the internationalist circles the Chinese anarchists frequented, and Paris was its stronghold. Xin shiji started life with an Esperanto subtitle, La Novaj Tempoj (new times). Its 4 publishers saw Esperanto as a practical medium, simply constructed and easy to learn, and as a way of subverting the linguistic hierarchies of natural speech and of promoting internationalism. Espousing Esperantism brought the Xin shiji group into contact with an even wider range of radical opinion.14 Esperanto particularly attracted Chinese in Europe, where they came up daily against a variety of languages.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • China's Youth in Transition
    Teaching About Asia Through Youth Culture CONFUCIAN AND COOL China’s Youth in Transition By Robert Moore and James Rizor Kicking Bird could be considered Qingdao University’s first hippie, at least if one were to judge him by his appearance. He had shoulder-length hair and made a point of pub- licly protesting the university’s rules on grooming.1 That was 1994, and even though young Chinese who looked like Kicking Bird could be found in Beijing and Shanghai at that time, they were all but non-existent in provincial cities like Qingdao. In fact, given the conservative grooming of most young Chinese at the time, Kicking Bird’s appearance was striking to say the least. His inspiration came from Hollywood. He had seen the Kevin Costner film Dances with Wolves and, hav- ing been mightily impressed with a Sioux Indian character in that film, had dropped his Chinese name in favor of the character’s and let his hair grow to shoulder length. The university officials were aghast at his be- havior and told him that until he conformed to a more conservative appearance, he wouldn’t be allowed back on campus. Kicking Bird was saved by what might be called the parent-child bond of an enduring Con- fucian mindset—his parents stood up for him and forced the university to back down. We can regard young Kicking Bird as emblematic of the inroads that American popular culture began to make in China once the barriers to outside influences were brought down by the post-Mao reforms initiated in 1978.
    [Show full text]
  • Cai Yuanpei's Vision of Aesthetic Education and His Legacy in Modern China
    Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE) NJCIE 2021, Vol. 5(2), 51–64 http://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.4155 Cai Yuanpei’s Vision of Aesthetic Education and His Legacy in Modern China Ning LUO1 The Education University of Hong Kong Copyright the author Peer-reviewed article; received 02 February 2021; accepted 6 April 2021 Abstract Cai Yuanpei is widely understood to have been a traditionally educated Chinese scholar who then turned his attention to Western philosophy. He is known to have played a central role in the development of Republican educational philosophies and institutions, with a legacy that continues to inform education in China. Studies tend to interpret Cai Yuanpei’s approach to aesthetic education in light of his educational experience in Germany, regarding him as a Kantian scholar. However, the Confucian roots of his aesthetic education seldom draw scholarly attention. To fill the gap, this article examines Cai’s vision of aesthetic education based on both his academic background in the East and his knowledge of Western philosophy and maps out his influence on and legacy in aesthetic education in China. It argues that Cai’s vision of aesthetic education has influenced modern Chinese education in three main ways: by bridging the gap between moral education and aesthetic education to nurture citizenship, by encouraging aesthetic education for whole-person development, and by adopting an interdisciplinary approach to school aesthetic education. The article concludes by reflecting on the enduring value of Cai’s vision of aesthetic education to modern Chinese education. Keywords: Cai Yuanpei, aesthetic education, China, humanism, social harmony Introduction Cai Yuanpei (蔡元培, 1868–1940) was a prominent figure in 20th-century China who served as the first Minister of Education of the Republic of China (ROC) and initiated modern education reforms nationwide.
    [Show full text]
  • The Discourse of Guohua Inwartime Shanghai
    European Journal European Journal of of East Asian Studies 19 (2020) 263–296 East Asian Studies brill.com/ejea The Discourse of Guohua in Wartime Shanghai Pedith Pui Chan School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, UK [email protected] Abstract This article looks at artists’ engagement with artistic activities carried out in wartime Shanghai, with a particular focus on guohua (lit., ‘national painting’). Drawing on pri- mary sources such as archival materials, diaries, paintings, magazines and newspapers, it explores the layered meanings attached to and social functions of guohua and the institutional structure of the Shanghai art world from the gudao (solitary island) period to the advent of full occupation from December 1941 onwards. As a symbol of Chinese elite culture, guohua continued to dominate the Shanghai art world with support from Wang Jingwei’s regime and the occupying Japanese, and was deemed the root of East Asian art and one of the crucial pillars of the East Asian renaissance in the discourse of the new order of East Asian art. Through closely examining the discourse of guohua in occupied Shanghai, this article advances our understanding of the production and consumption of art in wartime Shanghai by going beyond the paradigmatic binary of ‘collaboration’ and ‘resistance’. Keywords art – guohua – Second Sino-Japanese War – Shanghai – occupation 1 Introduction China’s Nationalist government relocated its capital from Nanjing to the city of Chongqing in the southwest of the country as a result of the Second Sino- Japanese War (1937–1945). Artists and resources from major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing migrated westward—either to Chongqing or elsewhere in the southwest, or to communist base areas in the northwest—resulting in an institutional reconfiguration of the Chinese art world.
    [Show full text]
  • Esperanto and Chinese Anarchism in the 1920S and 1930S
    The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s 2006 Retrieved on 22nd April 2021 from archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de usa.anarchistlibraries.net 2006 Zhou Enlai Zhou Zuoren Ziyou shudian Contents Introduction ..................... 5 Xuehui and Erošenko ................ 7 Anarchism and Esperanto in the late 1920s . 16 Anarchism and Esperanto in China in the 1930s 17 Conclusions ...................... 21 Bibliography ..................... 23 Glossary ........................ 25 30 3 “Wang xiangcun qu” wanguo xinyu “Wanguo xinyu”“Wo de shehui geming de yi- jian” Wu Jingheng (= Wu Zhihui) Wu Zhihui Wuxu Wuzhengfu gongchan zhuyi she “Xiandai xiju yishu zai Zhongguo de jianzhi” Xianmin Xin qingnian Xin she Xin shiji “Xinyu wenti zhi zada” Xing Xiwangzhe Xuantian Xuehui Xu Anzhen “Xu ‘Haogu zhi chengjian’” Xu Lunbo “Xu Lunbo xiansheng” “Xu ‘Pi miu’” Xu Shanguang / Liu Jianping / Xu Shanshu “Xu wanguo xinyu zhi jinbu” “Xu xinyu wenti zhi zada” Yamaga Taiji Ye Laishi Yuan Shikai “Zenyang xuanchuan zhuyi” Zhang Binglin Zhang Jiang (= Zhang Binglin) Zhang Jingjiang Zhang Qicheng Zheng Bi’an Zheng Chaolin Zheng Peigang Zheng Taipu “Zhishi jieji de shiming” “Zhongguo gudai wuzhengfuzhuyi chao zhi yipie” Zhongguo puluo shijieyuzhe lianmeng Zhongguo wuzhengfuzhuyi he Zhongguo shehuidang 29 Min Esperanto in China and among the Chinese diaspora was for Minbao long periods closely linked with anarchism. This article looks Ming Minguo ribao at the history of the Chinese Esperanto movement after the Minsheng repatriation of anarchism to China in the 1910s. It examines Minshengshe jishilu Esperanto’s political connections in the Chinese setting and Miyamoto Masao the arguments used by its supporters to promote the language.
    [Show full text]
  • C. Bibliothèque Municipale De Lyon Collection Notes
    Saturday, June 19, 1993 BM Page 1 BM : 1 Keyword #1 : Anarchists Keyword #2 : Propaganda Author # 1 : Hua Lin Keyword bio : Western Hills Author# 2 : Author# 3 : Author# 4 : Title : Zhongguo Guomindangshi [History of the Revolutionary Party) Place of Pub : Shanghai Publisher :shangwu Pub . Vol. : Number: Date of Pub : 1928 Pages: Library# : Notes : Section on CCP . Includes a section supporting the Western Hills faction excludin!;Jthe Commu nists. BM : 10 Keyword #1 :Third Party Keyword #'2 : Philosophical Author # 1 : Luo Longji Keyword bio : Political Theory Author#2 : Author# 3 : Author# 4 : Trtte : Zhengzhi Lunwen [Political Essays) Place of Pub : Shanghai Publisher :.)(inri Shudian Vol.: Number: Date of Pub : 1932 Pages : Library# : Notes : Ten essays on the nature of politics by one of the leaders of the Third party politics, editor of Yishi bao. Saturday , June 19, 1993 BM Page2 BM: 11 Keyword #1 : Education Keyword #2 : Educational Author# 1 : Zhang yunquan Keyword bio : 1930 Author# 2 : Author# 3: Author# 4 : Title : Guoji yundongshi [The International Movements] Place of Pub : Shanghai Publisher :shenzhou Guoguang Vol . : Number : Date of Pub : 1930 Pages : Library#: Notes :A nice overview of Socialist and Communist development, statistics, etc. BM:12 Keyword #1 : Western Hills Keyword #2 : Propaganda Author # 1 : Xiao Qing Keyword bio : 1924 Author#2 : Author# 3 : Author#4 : Title : Gongchandang yinmou da baolu Place of Pub : Guangzhou Publisher :Guangzhou sanmin julebusung Vol.: Number : Date of Pub : 1824 Pages : Library#
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution Was Also a Radical Educational Institution Modeled After Socialist 1991 36 for This Information, See Ibid., 58
    only by rephrasing earlier problems in a new discourse that is unmistakably modern in its premises and sensibilities; even where the answers are old, the questions that produced them have been phrased in the problematic of a new historical situation. The problem was especially acute for the first generation of intellec- Anarchism in the Chinese tuals to become conscious of this new historical situation, who, Revolution as products of a received ethos, had to remake themselves in the very process of reconstituting the problematic of Chinese thought. Anarchism, as we shall see, was a product of this situation. The answers it offered to this new problematic were not just social Arif Dirlik and political but sought to confront in novel ways its demands in their existential totality. At the same time, especially in the case of the first generation of anarchists, these answers were couched in a moral language that rephrased received ethical concepts in a new discourse of modernity. Although this new intellectual problematique is not to be reduced to the problem of national consciousness, that problem was important in its formulation, in two ways. First, essential to the new problematic is the question of China’s place in the world and its relationship to the past, which found expression most concretely in problems created by the new national consciousness. Second, national consciousness raised questions about social relationships, ultimately at the level of the relationship between the individual and society, which were to provide the framework for, and in some ways also contained, the redefinition of even existential questions.
    [Show full text]
  • Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880S-1940S
    Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880s-1940s Edited by Jing Tsu and Benjamin A. Elman LEIDEN | BOSTON This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents List of Figures vii Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Jing Tsu and Benjamin A. Elman Toward a History of Modern Science in Republican China 15 Benjamin A. Elman Historiography of Science and Technology in China The First Phase 39 Iwo Amelung Disciplining the National Essence Liu Shipei and the Reinvention of Ancient China’s Intellectual History 67 Joachim Kurtz Science in Translation Yan Fu’s Role 93 Shen Guowei Chinese Scripts, Codes, and Typewriting Machines 115 Jing Tsu Semiotic Sovereignty The 1871 Chinese Telegraph Code in Historical Perspective 153 Thomas S. Mullaney Proofreading Science Editing and Experimentation in Manuals by a 1930s Industrialist 185 Eugenia Lean The Controversy over Spontaneous Generation in Republican China Science, Authority, and the Public 209 Fa-ti Fan Bridging East and West through Physics William Band at Yenching University 245 Danian Hu Periodical Space Language and the Creation of Scientific Community in Republican China 269 Grace Shen This is a digital offprint for restricted use only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV vi Contents Operatic Escapes Performing Madness in Neuropsychiatric Beijing 297 Hugh Shapiro Index 327 Contents Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Jing Tsu and Benjamin A. Elman Introduction 1 Toward a History of Modern Science in Republican China 15 Benjamin A. Elman 15 Historiography of Science and Technology in China 39 The First Phase 39 Iwo Amelung 39 Disciplining the National Essence 67 Liu Shipei and the Reinvention of Ancient China’s Intellectual History 67 Joachim Kurtz 67 Science in Translation 93 Yan Fu’s Role 93 Shen Guowei 93 Chinese Scripts, Codes, and Typewriting Machines 115 Jing Tsu 115 Semiotic Sovereignty 153 The 1871 Chinese Telegraph Code in Historical Perspective 153 Thomas S.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China
    CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO CHINESE CHARACTER REFORM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS IN JAPAN AND CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2012 By Kei Imafuku Thesis Committee: Alexander Vovin, Chairperson Robert Huey Dina Rudolph Yoshimi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to Alexander Vovin, Robert Huey, and Dina R. Yoshimi for their Japanese and Chinese expertise and kind encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Their guidance, as well as the support of the Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the East-West Center, has been invaluable. i ABSTRACT Due to the complexity and number of Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese, some characters were the target of simplification reforms. However, Japanese and Chinese simplifications frequently differed, resulting in the existence of multiple forms of the same character being used in different places. This study investigates the differences between the Japanese and Chinese simplifications and the effects of the simplification techniques implemented by each side. The more conservative Japanese simplifications were achieved by instating simpler historical character variants while the more radical Chinese simplifications were achieved primarily through the use of whole cursive script forms and phonetic simplification techniques. These techniques, however, have been criticized for their detrimental effects on character recognition, semantic and phonetic clarity, and consistency – issues less present with the Japanese approach. By comparing the Japanese and Chinese simplification techniques, this study seeks to determine the characteristics of more effective, less controversial Chinese character simplifications.
    [Show full text]
  • Reveno Al Tririvero À Trois-Rivières De Nouveau!
    Septembro 2011 Esperanto-Societo Kebekia Jaro 27, No 105 Kebekia esperantista bulteno RRevenoeveno aall TTririveroririvero Julifine en Tririvero .........................2 Ci kaj vi en Esperanto ......................10 Esperanta boatado en Kroatio ........4 Lingwa de Planeta ...........................17 8-a MEKARO ne elrevigis ! ...............5 Esperantistaj enmigrantoj ..............21 Esperanto en la franca poŝt-servo ! .6 Kiel traduki ? ...................................25 L’esperanto : une langue par choix ! 7 150 000 artikoloj en E-Vikipedio .....29 La cimo de l’ jaro 2038 ....................9 Montrealaj k apudaj E-kunvenoj .....31 À TTrois-Rivièresrois-Rivières ddee nnouveau!ouveau! Julifine en Tririvero Francisko Lorrain Treize espérantistes, dont une chienne, se sont rencontrés à Trois-Rivières durant la dernière fin de semaine de juillet, à l’invitation de Suzanne Roy. Il a fait beau. Nous avons visité le Musée du papier, le Parc de la Rivière Batiscan, beaucoup parlé, et dégusté chez Suzanne d’excellents plats végétaliens préparés par Karlo. En la lasta Riverego, iom studis nian lingvon Suzano Roy, el kaj kunmanĝis kun ni. Tririvero, invitis Kvar montrealanoj nin pasigi la du loĝis ĉe Suzano, alia ĉe lastajn tagojn de Francisko Gauthier, tute julio — sabaton kaj proksime, en la centra, dimanĉon — en sia malnova, tre agrabla, urbo. Entute dek tri riveregborda kvartalo Foto: Vikipedio homoj partoprenis en de la urbo. almenaŭ parto de la tuta programo. Eble ne ĉiuj legantoj scias, kial tiu urbo El Montrealo venis nomiĝas Tririvero. Nu, ĝi Ĵoel, Ĵenja, Den, situas ĉe la kunfluejo de Karlo, Espero (la poliglota hundo de Den kaj Karlo la rivero Saint-Maurice kaj riverego Saint-Laurent. — ŝi komprenas kaj la hispanan kaj Esperanton) Sed kiu estas la tria rivero ? Ne estas tria rivero tie.
    [Show full text]
  • The Perfect Language and the Mathematicians
    Jekyll.comm 1 – marzo 2002 Mathematicians and the perfect language: Giuseppe Peano’s case By Daniele Gouthier, Nico Pitrelli and Ivan Pupolizo Master’s Degree Course in Scientific Communication – ISAS – Trieste – Italy Attempts to create an International Artificial Language (IAL) have kept pace with the evolution of modern science. Ever since Galileo’s time, scientists have been interested in how to create a perfect language (the adjective “perfect” takes on the meaning of “universal” or “unambiguous” depending on the period) capable of supporting communication at a horizontal level i.e. within the scientific community, and at a vertical level, i.e. between scientists and the public. The first goal of this article is to describe briefly how this need for a perfect language developed over the past years. Special attention will be spent on the mathematicians’ role, especially Giuseppe Peano’s. The second goal is to illustrate how Giuseppe Peano’s contribution to this debate proved twofold and led to various conclusions. The Italian mathematician played a leading role in the creation of a perfect language, both at a horizontal and a vertical level. On the one hand, there is his successful attempt to introduce a standard logical and symbolic system of notation, which became essential for communication among mathematicians. On the other hand, there is the complete failure of his ambitious Latino sine flexione (Latin without inflection), a perfect language which died with its creator. Introduction People have been interested in the creation of a perfect language for more than two thousand years. From ancient Greek philosophers to present PC programmers, the search for a universal language is ever present in the history of culture and, more specifically, of science.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Quest for World-Class Universities
    MARCHING TOWARD HARVARD: CHINA’S QUEST FOR WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITIES A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of The School of Continuing Studies and of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies By Linda S. Heaney, B.A. Georgetown University Washington, D.C. April 19, 2111 MARCHING TOWARD HARVARD: CHINA’S QUEST FOR WORLD-CLASS UNIVERSITIES Linda S. Heaney, B.A. MALS Mentor: Michael C. Wall, Ph.D. ABSTRACT China, with its long history of using education to serve the nation, has committed significant financial and human resources to building world-class universities in order to strengthen the nation’s development, steer the economy towards innovation, and gain the prestige that comes with highly ranked academic institutions. The key economic shift from “Made in China” to “Created by China” hinges on having world-class universities and prompts China’s latest intentional and pragmatic step in using higher education to serve its economic interests. This thesis analyzes China’s potential for reaching its goal of establishing world-class universities by 2020. It addresses the specific challenges presented by lack of autonomy and academic freedom, pressures on faculty, the systemic problems of plagiarism, favoritism, and corruption as well as the cultural contradictions caused by importing ideas and techniques from the West. The foundation of the paper is a narrative about the traditional intertwining role of government and academia in China’s history, the major educational transitions and reforms of the 20th century, and the essential ingredients of a world-class institution.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Public Diplomacy: the Rise of the Confucius Institute / Falk Hartig
    Chinese Public Diplomacy This book presents the first comprehensive analysis of Confucius Institutes (CIs), situating them as a tool of public diplomacy in the broader context of China’s foreign affairs. The study establishes the concept of public diplomacy as the theoretical framework for analysing CIs. By applying this frame to in- depth case studies of CIs in Europe and Oceania, it provides in-depth knowledge of the structure and organisation of CIs, their activities and audiences, as well as problems, chal- lenges and potentials. In addition to examining CIs as the most prominent and most controversial tool of China’s charm offensive, this book also explains what the structural configuration of these Institutes can tell us about China’s under- standing of and approaches towards public diplomacy. The study demonstrates that, in contrast to their international counterparts, CIs are normally organised as joint ventures between international and Chinese partners in the field of educa- tion or cultural exchange. From this unique setting a more fundamental observa- tion can be made, namely China’s willingness to engage and cooperate with foreigners in the context of public diplomacy. Overall, the author argues that by utilising the current global fascination with Chinese language and culture, the Chinese government has found interested and willing international partners to co- finance the CIs and thus partially fund China’s international charm offensive. This book will be of much interest to students of public diplomacy, Chinese politics, foreign policy and international relations in general. Falk Hartig is a post-doctoral researcher at Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, and has a PhD in Media & Communication from Queensland Univer- sity of Technology, Australia.
    [Show full text]